We focus on helping the
youth create employment
for themselves

A B O U T U S

What is Futuremakers

Young Africa Botswana is delivering a 12-month project, in partnership with Youth Business International, to support young entrepreneurs to recover from the economic impact of COVID-19. Funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation, the project is part of Futuremakers by Standard Chartered, a global initiative to tackle inequality.

Young Africa Botswana will provide a holistic package of support to 1000+ entrepreneurs across Botswana. We will specifically target underserved entrepreneurs between the ages of 18-35 who have been hardest hit by the crisis.

Youth Business International and Standard Chartered Foundation are working together to provide crucial support to over 33,000 underserved young entrepreneurs in six countries across Africa, Asia and Europe.
Futuremakers by the Standard Chartered Foundation is our global initiative to tackle inequality by promoting greater economic inclusion. Futuremakers supports disadvantaged young people, especially girls and people with visual impairments, to learn new skills and improve their chances of getting a job or starting their own business.

Last year Young Africa Botswana was one of the first Futuremakers providers of the initiative and the only one in Botswana. 29 young Batswana graduated in early 2020 after a 5 months intensive training in Entrepreneurial skill and on-the-job training. After the success of Futuremakers in Botswana the Standard Chartered Foundation and Young Africa Botswana decided to continue with Futuremakers in 2021. Learn More About Futuremakers

Together with the renowned partner Youth Business International, Young Africa Botswana is offering a 12 month project reaching out to 1000+ young people in Botswana with a unique and comprehensive Entrepreneurial program.

Young Africa Botswana

Young Africa Botswana (YAB) is a local non-governmental organization, affiliated to Young Africa International, which focuses on developing and implementing programmes to help the youth become employable or create jobs for themselves.

Registered in 2016, YAB recently received accreditation as an Education and Training Institute through the Botswana Qualification Authority (BQA). As Botswana’s novel provider of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programs, our ultimate aim is to demonstrate that TVET is cool.

On the 16th of December 2017, Young Africa Botswana (YAB) signed an MoU with the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development having, the main
objectives to revamp the 3 big MYSC projects; Internship Programme, Youth Development Fund and Botswana National Service Programme (Tirelo Sechaba). It is the first time that MYSC established a partnership of this magnitude with an NGO.
Through the partnership with MYSC, YAB got assigned and moved into the Lady Masire Youth Centre in Gaborone West in January 2018.

From January 2018 to December 2020, YAB has trained 309 beneficiaries – mainly from the G-West community – through various short programmes. Through our events we reached more than 2000 youth and our Facebook pages have 26000 followers combined.

Young Africa Botswana (YAB) centres should become hubs that symbolize the abundance of potential of the Batswana youth; a place where locals and tourists come to experience local culture, food, art and design. The vision is to turn YAB’s first centre in Gaborone West into a vibrant incubator for youth businesses and we started selecting young businesses with the potential to grow to be under our close mentorship in Trading and Training, a new concept in Botswana.

YAB’s method allows the businesses to benefit from mentorship and learn from one another as well as to keep each other sharp. Under YAB’s care and tutelage, the businesses share customers as well as marketing, admin and security costs. Initially, the businesses only contribute to basic costs such as utilities. And as part of their mentorship, they are obligated to take in students as their assistants and, in this way, train a new generation of aspiring entrepreneurs and skilled employees – paying it forward.

We believe that innovation is what distinguishes us the most. “Developing Talent & Ambition” is our motto and it stands for our belief that the youth should be given an opportunity to choose, decide, change and lead while insisting on a highly professional approach, in other words, freedom and responsibility go together.

Youth Business International

Futuremakers Botswana is a programme that forms part of a wider Economic Recovery Programme led by Youth Business International (YBI). YBI`s mission is to support disadvantaged young people to start, grow and sustain their businesses, helping them to create jobs, build communities and transform lives.

Established in 2000, YBI brings together 50+ expert business support organisations, (our members) from across the globe, to develop and scale the most effective solutions to the critical challenges facing young entrepreneurs and catalyse positive change in entrepreneurship culture.

YBI is well positioned to respond to the economic impact of Covid-19 and has helped our members to adapt their existing services, as well as develop new support programmes that assist youth-led businesses during this crisis. These services have been designed to meet the most pressing needs of young entrepreneurs and equip them with the skills and tools to navigate this crisis.

YBI, together with our member in Nigeria, FATE Foundation, wishes to partner with Standard Chartered Bank to deliver a co-ordinated 12-month Covid-19 recovery programme that will deliver high-quality, bespoke entrepreneurship and business training and services, helping youth-led businesses to adapt and survive during this difficult time.

The co-ordinated programme will include YBI members from across Europe and Africa. Each participating member has designed and developed individualised interventions, offering the most relevant, tailored support to youth-led businesses to meet the needs and realities on the ground.

This programme forms part of a wider Economic Recovery Programme led by Youth Business International (YBI). YBIs mission is to support disadvantaged young people to start, grow and sustain their businesses, helping them to create jobs, build communities and transform lives.

Standard Chartered Foundation

The Standard Chartered Foundation is a charitable foundation that tackles inequality by promoting greater economic inclusion for disadvantaged young people from low-income households, particularly girls and people with visual impairments.

Social and economic inequality limits individual and collective potential, stifling growth and creating social disharmony. Inequality significantly affects disadvantaged young people who often can’t access the skills and opportunities needed to close the income gap.

Globally, more than 200 million young people are either unemployed, or they have jobs, but continue to live in poverty due to low income. They lack the opportunities to improve their lives and their communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this worse.
SCF funds programmes in the areas of education, employability, entrepreneurship and eye health.

It is the lead delivery partner for Futuremakers by Standard Chartered.
It is also a delivery partner for the Standard Chartered COVID-19 Global Charitable Fund, set up in April 2020 by Standard Chartered PLC, to support communities impacted by COVID-19, through economic recovery programmes under Futuremakers.
https://www.sc.com/en/sustainability/investing-in-communities/scfoundation/

“The quality of my work is not improvised anymore and I can now meet
deadlines of my business clients and assignments.”
Kemo Segotso

Alumni – Futuremakers 2D and 3D Design 2019-2020

“This program was absolutely amazing, we all
transformed”
Tshireletso Leselwa